REVIEW - FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED

To be removed from one's own life, and yet to still be a part of it. Death, eventually, must be a relief, even to those around oneself, who will have to deal with that death, unlike the corpse whose consciousness has departed their body forever. The horror of Alzheimer's is not what it removes but what it leaves behind, what remnants of the mind it has ravaged continue to thrive hopelessly, suspended in a now-empty headspace, with nothing to cling onto, nothing to relate to. First Cousin Once Removed is a life seen through the eyes of a man who can barely appreciate its existence, never mind remember it, and explained by his friends and relatives. It was an existence filled with pain, but defined by genius. The friends and relatives each see it differently, then, and the most enduring aspect of this film is in their recollections, wistful and regretful. We will not be moved to tears, nor to laughter, but will ourselves be suspended in contemplation. Thoughts are teased out in simple tricks and techniques; Alain Berliner has a marvellous knack for isolating the most potent parts of moments within his film, and for subtly emphasising them. He thus demarcates a route for us through the grim puzzle that is Alzheimer's, one that will ensure we arrive at not only a stronger understanding of its nature but also a stronger understanding of the real damage it does to the mind of its victims and to the minds of those who must cope with watching a loved one fall gradually, irreversibly into an intellectual stupor. And what they are left behind - memories, oddly, of that life. In this case, these memories may not all be as wondrous as one might wish. The prospect of atonement for those regrets has been removed too. Once and for all.